Edmund Botsford was born November 1, 1745 in Woburn, Bedfordshire, England. By the age of seven he had lost both parents and was living with an aunt. He wanted to go to sea but became a soldier. At twenty he arrived in Charleston, S.C. in January, 1766. He was converted under the ministry of Oliver Hart at the Charleston Baptist Church on November 1, 1766. He was licensed to preach in February, 1771, and preached his first sermon to a congregation near Tuckasee King, Ga. on June 27, 1771. He traveled and preached in Georgia and South Carolina, and was ordained March 14, 1773. Botsford settled in Briarcreek, Burke County, Ga. in May 1774 and stayed there until the spring of 1779 when the Revolutionary War caused him and his family to flee to Virginia. He became pastor of the Welsh Neck Church in Society Hill, S.C. He moved to Georgetown, S.C. in February 1797 to become pastor of the Georgetown Baptist Church. He remained there until his death on December 25, 1819.

Mr. Botsford was married four times. In 1773, he was married in Augusta, Ga., to Susanna Nun. She died March 9, 1790. The eldest daughter by this marriage was Mary, who married Thomas Park, LL. D., and died in 1828. In 1791, he was married to his second wife, Mrs. Catherine (McIver) Evans, who died in 1796. By this marriage he had one daughter, Catherine McIver Botsford, who married Moses Fort. In 1799, he was married to his third wife, Mrs. Ann Deliesseline, and she died in 1801. In December, 1803, he was married to his fourth wife, Mrs. Hannah Goff, who died in 1822.